You’ll understand the title of this blog post if you say it quickly and then read on!
Along with faux Vintage style…I abhor Shabby Chic!
Not the absolute real thing you understand but then…. few know what it was or where the real thing came from.
This post was prompted by my good friend Marianne, who being a dolls house enthusiast, and having visited a dolls house fair, was puzzled by the desire to make and buy shabby chic for the dolls house. She wanted to know what it was and where it came from and she asked me. So this post is especially for you M.
First we need to identify what Shabby Chic is. We must though, differentiate between the modern Gustavian/ Scandinavian fashion for white or pale colours, for frills and folderols, the feminine boudoir look and true SHABBY. They would have you think it’s one and the same. IT IS NOT and has a different origin.
Shabby chic is a form of interior design where furniture and other items are either chosen for their appearance of age and signs of wear and tear or where the new has been distressed to achieve the appearance of an older item. At the same time, a soft, cottage-style decor, yes, often with a feminine feel about it, is accompanied by a haphazardness of collectables – most of which are not particularly valuable.
These interiors look as if they have grown organically ie: have been there years when in fact they can all have been put together fairly recently in one fell swoop.
Mostly painted furniture is chipped, cracked and rubbed. Fabrics are aged, worn and threadbare. Items which would once have been relegated to the loft or garage are displayed as they are, in a public space ie: the Sitting Room, with pride. ( The rusty garden chair, the unsightly meat safe with wire front).
Faded, worn, torn and rubbed.
WHY?
Why would anyone want to keep items which are unsightly, worn or seen better days? As I’ve said before – yes I might keep them for sentimental reasons but would I put them on show. No. Unless I mended and re-vamped them properly. Or unless doing so would devalue them…as it would my late 18th century silk covered French Salon Chair.
It all goes back to the days when the Stately Home was in full flow; to the days before the First World War, ( 1914-1918 ) when Men were GentleMen and Ladies were Ladies and the rest were Hoi Polloi!
Those who were employed in the Big House ( ie: were in service ) had to contend with plain unadulterated pine furniture. They might be lucky perhaps to have a hand me down Elm chest in their room. They might have a 17th century carved oak chest. In some homes, this has been steadily working its way down the social ladder since the early 18th century when finer more delicate pieces, or perhaps gilded items, were being brought back from the Grand Tour by the Young Sons of the House. They had become unfashionable and so, rather than chuck’em out, the servants had them. A case of Early Recycling, though they would simply have quoted us the old adage Waste not Want not, I suspect 
A late 19th century English pine chest on turned legs with brass handles. It would be criminal to paint this. But someone might.
In the Old Days, furniture had been made to last and it had been made of HARD WOOD. Oak, Elm, Beech etc.
After the early 17th century other materials began to come in from abroad ( The East India Trading Company brought Mahogany as early as the late 16th century). These, it was found could be made to have really beautiful patterns in them and folk went wild for the new ‘brown’ furniture. Rich folk that is.
The Plebs had to be content with their Oak and their Ash and their bonny Ivy tree. < ahem – couldn’t resist the song. Sorry >.
As time wore on, hardwoods became scarce. They were being used, you see by everybody in the land. Shipbuilding ( think of the Armada), everyone burnt logs on their fires, houses were built with wood, many utensils had a wooden element to them ( look up -Treen) tools, carts, carriages, you name it, it had some wood in it. Or someone had used wood in the making of it.
So, soft woods had to be employed. Pine came from Scandinavia and Russia, Cedar came from further afield ( and was very expensive so might has well have been a hard wood ), Spruce came from Poland, Birch – we had in quite good quantities here. Furniture started to be made of pine. At first the pine was quite good quality. It had fewer knots and splits than more modern pine. It could be buffed to a nice shine and glowed beautifully with beeswax. Then the demand rose. Trees were felled before they reached maturity and the quality ( and the width of panel or board ) decreased.
It looked bad and so what would you do.?..You would PAINT IT! That solved your problem. No unsightly grain or knots.
In the 19th century a lot of poor pine was painted. This is why doors were painted. Poor quality wood. Have you never wondered when you go into a really old cottage why ( if the owners have been kind ) the doors are bare wood and the floors and the skirting boards and if there is some, panelling? It’s also laughable that people a while back were clamouring to strip old doors etc….when really, the wood wasn’t worth it. They had put in all the effort before they realised, of course.
Originally, you would never ever have painted oak panelling. But pine, you had to.
So at this time…what was happening in the Stately Home?
The Grand Folk were collecting inlaid furniture, Pietra Dura ( stone inlay ), exquisite veneers etc. They were indulging in their love of the ornate. They collected fabulous textiles, tapestries, Chinese porcelain, bronze, silver and gold.
19th century Credenza with peitra dura inlay.
Now, when we get to 1914, off we all go to War. There is a serious shortage of labour. The Big House has many less servants. Times change. No longer can the Landed Gentry afford to upkeep their Palaces, Castles and Houses and the likes of Hoi Polloi, are let in, at a price, to ogle and gawp at the goodies of their betters, in order to keep their betters afloat!
What visual treats awaited this riff-raff ?
Faded textiles, rubbed velvets and shabby chintz. The carpets are worn with hundreds of years worth of feet. The furniture, in many cases is scratched and light faded. The spines of the books in the library are cracked. The copper of the kitchen is dented. The brass fenders are scratched and dented too. See what I’m getting at?
Once it was fashionable, chic and pristine. Now it’s a mess.
Is this how the Gentry live? Ah well we had better emulate them. ( We have until recently, always wished to emulate our, so say, betters ). And Shabby Chic was born. It took a few years to filter down in to mainstream fashion. It all began with the likes of Laura Ashley in the 60′s who introduced us to the Country House look. We might take just elements of this and still see it in some of the interiors of today. But the worn out, tired old, battered, banged and beaten about…..is pure imitation. Laura Ashley I’m sure would be turning in her grave.
Laura Ashley 1980's country interior.
What is new is the desire to add to the mix, items which are of a folk art origin; the artisan tool, an item from the stables, the grand house kitchen, the gardener’s shed, the parlour maids cupboard, the housekeepers closet, the butler’s pantry. And leave it in its scruffy condition.
Stuff.
So, whilst I can tolerate the Real Thing…the once beautiful interiors of say The Chatsworths or the Longleats of this country. I cannot stand the pseudo – shabby.
I also worry that the fashion for painting items of furniture, spray painting ceramics to match your current decor, using tea cups as candle holders, cutting up French Tea Towels to make cushions, using yards of perfectly good old materials to make little hearts filled with lavender ( for goodness sake how many fabric hearts can a house take?) or ruining a good dinner service to make a cake stand from the plates, will end up in society having none of these things, in their original state, to hand down to the future.
If I use anything, it’s beyond use for its original purpose. Or it’s tacky and horrid in its original form, ( yes I know many would like me to define tacky so that they can disagree. ) If I take something to pieces it’s because it cannot be mended.
So, when I re-discovered this little 1930′s ( of little value ) metal corsage, in my friend’s effects, I thought it might be nice to resurrect it as a decoration for one of my little boxes. It might give someone pleasure in the form in which it is now. As it was it was unusable and rather ( to my mind- and that is the crux of it all – taste) -ugly in its entirety.
A hand embossed white box with white and bronze flower.The lace behind is a small piece of early 19th century tambour lace. The centre is a flower from a 1930's metal corsage - re-gilded. A Vintage type label is attached.
Hope this answers your question M.
A Little box covered with Vintage imagery paper. Two hand made silk flowers with pearls and smaller 1970's silk flowers are on the top along with a piece of a 1930's metal corsage which I have re-gilded and stained lavender. Two 1970's rosebud trims complete the box front.
The top of the box showing the two flowers...one made of white dewdrop lace.
We have always, throughout history, chopped and changed our interiors. Fashions have come and gone. It’s only human to want to change things for change’s sake. I, for example, would have been very happy if I had lived then, for the change from High Victorian, with its many layers, its dark fussiness, its heavy ornateness, to the lighter, brighter more feminine fashion of the Edwardian era. Likewise I would have hated the hard, masculine, straight lines of Art Deco. The problem seems to lie, with the fact that nothing else seems to be offered to us at present. It’s Modernism….or Shabby Chic…or Vintage which is an offshoot of SC -none of which reflects my personality nor that of my husband. I used to get the BBC magazine, Homes and Antiques. I don’t now. It’s full of rubbish with hardly an antique in sight. It’s gone all Vintage and ugly. I’m surprised the magazine still sports the title- Antique.
The current cover, one in a long line of covers mentioning Vintage. Is there nothing else?
Once upon a time, our ancestors were green with envy.
Now we are simply – green.
Read that how you may.
I shall post some photos of the things I made earlier, which may not have made it to this blog but may have been featured on my Facebook Page.
